We’re keeping our eyes out for the start of trading for GoPro Inc./quotes/zigman/34007695/delayed/quotes/nls/gproGPRO, the company that makes wearable sports cameras. The shares priced Wednesday night at $24 apiece, the high end of earlier expectations. The company raised $427 million, which could increase if underwriters decide to buy additional shares.

In the meantime, Asheesh Advani writes about the offering:

“The valuation is high and the risks are palpable. The $24 per share pricingvalues GoPro at about $3 billion, with a higher price-to-earnings ratio than Apple. Clearly this valuation is not purely based on the business prospects of selling its durable cameras, as most consumer-electronics products become commoditized fairly quickly. The real investor appetite for GoPro is based on the potential to monetize the sharing of all the mind-bending videos filmed by its customers.”

Here are Bank of America Merrill Lynch strategists, led by Michael Hartnett, who are continuing to hammer at the theme that we will get a summer melt-up in stocks until the fat lady sings in the fall. From their equities research note:

“The 2014 risk asset rally started back in February and is incomplete; wait for lower cash levels, lower corporate bond prices and a breach of the magic “8″ figure by our Bull & Bear index before buying vol toward the end of summer.”

Speaking of the big game, which we know everyone is paying more attention to, you’ll probably need an excuse to get out of work to watch the game. Luckily, the U.S. Men’s National Team coach has you covered. You can find his template excuse form here.

As stocks fall, Treasury prices are rising. The benchmark 10-year note
/quotes/zigman/4868283/delayed10_YEAR yield, which falls as prices rise, is down 4 basis points at 2.518%, its lowest in four weeks.

BlackRock Inc. has its mid-year update event on Thursday. Here’s what their team of strategists forecasts for the next six months in stocks:

“Stocks have outperformed bonds so far, and are on a pace that suggests returns could end the year in the mid to upper single digits. Not a great year, in other words, but a decent one. Despite the rally in bonds and corresponding sharp drop in interest rates, we maintain our early year outlook: We still expect rates to trend up, if only modestly. Our core view of the economy also stands: improving, but still below-trend growth. And one development we’re watching closely: tentative signs of a pickup in U.S. inflation.”

MarketWatch’s Brett Arends has a Thursday column about how to beat exchange-traded funds by improving on the formula with a little elbow grease. He mentions five specific strategies, which you can read more about here. He’s also got a bone to pick with the growing ETF industry:

“Most ETFs, when you think about it, are built on a contradiction. They tell you to spread your bets across the entire market, but then they pour a disproportionate share of their money into the few stocks with the highest values — Apple and Google and Exxon and so on. They tell you that all stocks offer the same risk-adjusted prospective returns, and then put more money in the most popular stocks than they do in the bottom 100.

“This ‘capitalization-weighted’ indexing makes sense for only one reason: It serves the interests of the money management companies, because it is easily scalable and easily manageable.”

Is GoPro Inc. done with its trading-debut surge for the day? It’s lingered just below its intraday highs for a little while now. The stock is up 30% right around $31, after hitting a high of $33. It priced at $24.

The euro
/quotes/zigman/4867933/realtime/sampledEURUSD is down against the dollar, trading at $1.3617 versus $1.3631 late Wednesday. Clearly it’s a sign that Germany, the euro zone’s biggest economy, is going to lose to the U.S. in the World Cup game that starts at noon eastern. Check out more currency moves here.

Google’s new products are expected to serve as a long-term catalyst for the company, according to analysts at Wells Fargo Securities. Still, it will be a number of years before they mature enough to make a significant difference, said analyst Peter Stabler.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has opted to list on the New York Stock Exchange, according to a Bloomberg report that cited a person familiar with the matter. The decision by the Chinese internet giant to list with NYSE is a blow to the Nasdaq, traditionally a haven for tech companies, revealing that confidence in the exchange may still be recovering from the Facebook’s botched IPO in May 2012. Alibaba filed for the IPO in May. There is speculation that the IPO could be the largest in U.S. history and that it could happen as soon as August.

Uruguay’s Luiz Suarez will be paying a steep price for biting Italian player Giorgio Chiellini during Tuesday’s match. FIFA on Thursday suspended Suarez for nine matches and fined him 100,000 Swiss francs. The suspension means Suarez will not be able to play in Uruguay’s round of 16 match with Colombia on Saturday, hurting his team’s chances of progressing further.

After tallying a gain of roughly 4% over the past six sessions, gold futures closed lower on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

August gold
/quotes/zigman/11829489/realtimeGCQ4 settled at $1,317 an ounce, down $5.60, or 0.4%. It closed at $1,322.60 a day earlier, which was the highest close for a most-active contract since April 14.

Stocks are expensive, but they’re not in a bubble and they remain largely a better bet than bonds over the second half of this year, top investment strategists at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with more than $4.3 trillion under management, said Thursday.

The People’s Bank of China is adding stimulus, the ECB doing similar, while the Fed and Bank of England have moved to tighten. What is the impact on markets and how should investors be prepared? Karl Schamotta of Cambridge Mercantile Group joins MoneyBeat. Photo: Getty Images.

Oil futures settled below $106 a barrel as concerns surrounding supplies from Libya and Iraq eased and U.S. economic data dulled the outlook for energy demand.

August crude
/quotes/zigman/2196851/realtimeCLQ4 fell 66 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $105.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That marked the lowest close in roughly two weeks.

Meanwhile, natural-gas prices fell on the back of a bigger-than-expected U.S. supply climb and the expiration of the July futures contracts. July natural gas
/quotes/zigman/2308005/realtimeNGN14 fell 15 cents, or 3.4%, to end at $4.40 per million British thermal units.

“I wouldn’t be worried about it,” said Robert E. Whaley, a professor at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management known for developing the VIX for the Chicago Board Options Exchange in 1993.

He said the VIX’s low levels show people are comfortable that nothing serious will happen in the next 30 days.

But what about fears that there’s too much complacency?

“There are too many people out there that want to make money,” Whaley said, speaking on the sidelines of ETF.com’s Global Macro ETF Strategist Conference in New York. “I assure you that there’s no complacency.”

David Kotok of Cumberland Advisors says rising geopolitical risk prompted him to raise cash reserves in the second half of June but that stocks still appear attractive on a relative basis. He offers a list of 6 reasons why stocks have ground out record high after record high in the second quarter:

1. The short-term interest rate remains close to zero.

2. Long-term government bond rates fell when they were expected to rise worldwide.

3. Reports of worldwide inflation continued at very low levels in most jurisdictions. In Europe, the inflation rate is now recorded at 0.50%.

4. Central bank policies continue to be expansive. Even though the Federal Reserve (Fed) is tapering, it is still expanding excess reserves and acquiring assets onto its balance sheet.

5. The federal deficit continues to shrink. It has gone from a run rate of $1.4 trillion at its peak to an annualized run rate of $400 billion, and the number if falling.

6. The growing U.S. energy self-sufficiency is evolving and is resulting in shrinking trade and current account deficits. We do not import as much oil and energy as we used to. We produce much more. The trends continue in that direction. That means that dollars do not flow abroad; therefore, those dollars do not have to be attracted back to the U.S. by higher interest rates or other investment returns.

The bell has rung. Stocks trimmed earlier losses but still ended the day in the red. The S&P and the Dow have lost ground three out of the last four sessions, while the Nasdaq Composite is down two of the last three.

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